The Last of the Lotus
by Hannibal the Animal
Summary: The final instalment in the four part "We Eat Lotuses" series. Find the Soundtrack on author's profile


Mom and Dad are so happy, so relieved when Jack-Jack decides to become a career hero. He's graduated from high school and moves to Westburg, and his parents are even more ecstatic when he offers one of the apartment's two bedrooms to Violet.

"Oh Jackson, it's so noble of you to let Violet do this!" his mother sobs.

"Jackson, you're a real man," his dad says proudly with an ear to ear grin.

Violet packs her things and complies of course because he gives her an order. That was something he had discovered last year, a fickle part of her that unlocked so much. He had come home to her cleaning his bedroom and she had accidentally found his dirty magazines and he had yelled, "Drop that!"

Without a second's hesitation, she had let them slip from her hands to the floor, he had then told her to leave the room NOW, and with speed to rival their brother, she was out the door. He had been humiliated, had she seen the pictures of the girls like her? When he went raging out of the room, there she had been, waiting right outside the door. He had assumed she wanted to talk about what she found but instead surprised him with a quiet,

"You didn't tell me what to do next."

He had told her to go to her room and she had done exactly that. From that point on, he had experimented to see what she wouldn't do and he had found out that there _wasn't _anything she wouldn't do

She likes to be directed and he likes to keep her under control. And now that she lives with him everything is perfect. Jack-Jack comes home to a sparkling clean apartment every evening and he admires her determined efforts to cook him dinner, which usually turns out good. Her bedroom is a replica of the one at home, though she only uses her bed to take a nap during the day, they sleep in his at night.

It's a perfect life; after all his whole life is about lying and he's quite accomplished at it. It's his secret identity to his secret identity. He can't feel bad about it—he's supposed to take care of her and if this is how it must be done, then so be it.

* * *

There's a call one evening for all Supers and Jack-Jack thinks that it would only be responsible if Violet helps. He quickly finds a ski mask and the tracksuit she wears to the gym they attend and she's dressed in the makeshift Super's uniform. They fly out of the apartment and meet up with Mr. Nobody's henchmen downtown.

"Violet, make a force field," he orders and she makes a shield around them as the bullets begin to fly.

Jack-Jack is amazed at how powerful she looks, a brief glimpse of what she could have been. Her hands are held out and she standing still, no sign of shaking or trembling. He can see the stern, businesslike look on her face. She wants to protect him, to take care of him and there is nothing else in the world more important.

* * *

"You know, He tried to take you away first before He got me," she says sleepily in bed a few months later.

Jack-Jack's skin crawls.

"Syndrome had you? Wasn't he dead?"

"No, no he was strong. Powerful. Like you."

Suddenly he realizes why she likes the red hair, why she likes being given orders, why she's so messed up. She's in love with Syndrome and he has just spent the past three years trying to replace the villain he's spent his whole life hating.

Suddenly reality sets in and he realizes how wrong all of this is. She's no longer the pretty and obedient, but gaunt and weak and his _sister_. He pushes her out of his arms and makes her sleep on the opposite side of the bed.

* * *

Violet's body is found later that afternoon in the bathtub back in Metroville, the lukewarm water saturated with blood, jazz playing softly on the stereo. Jack-Jack listens to his father sob into the phone that "she's gone," and he tries not to feel guilty that earlier that morning he had told her she had to leave, told her to get out and stay away from him.

* * *

Dash puts a protective arm around his mother, who's crying again. The whole family is standing in the front pew of the church, wearing their Supers uniforms as the Incredibles, not the Parrs. Mr. Incredible has silent tears running down his face and Jackson hasn't talked to anyone since he was told the news. The coffin in front of them is draped with an American flag and up front, the Metroville Fire Chief is tearfully talking about the time Incredigirl saved the entire fire department with a force field when she was still a girl.

Poor Violet. Poor, sweet Violet. She was gone, but it wasn't like they had ever gotten her back.

Her body will be flown to Washington DC to the NSA Headquarters where she'll be interred in the Memorial Garden, where all heroes are buried. Dash holds a piece of paper in his hands, creased and dog-eared from hours of numbly handling it. Mom and Dad had asked him to speak for the family. On the lined half sheet of binder paper is her name scribbled and the Incredibles emblem doodled in the corner. There are little notes that he wanted to say,

"_She liked to smell the flowers in the park."_

"_When there was pizza, she never took the last slice."_

"_She never forgot a person's birthday._

"_Her favorite colour was blue."_

He bites his lower lip, hard enough to draw blood, but he has to ground himself to keep from crying.

She was gone, but it wasn't like they had ever gotten her back.

* * *

Violet's taking a hot bath in the old bathroom. The grout is just as stained as it was when she was a little girl and the goldfish are swimming lackadaisial around her head. She's upset and confused that The Boy treated her the way he did. Didn't he understand that she was complimenting him when she said that he was similar to the demonic force that had made her perfect?

Not that anyone came close to her One True Love. No one could. How could they compare to the perfect man?

"Hey, Babe."

Violet looks up from her knobby knees to see the one person she's been longing to see for forever now.

"You're here!" she says, slightly surprised.

The fiery red god smirks and sits on the edge of the bathtub. He looks a little fuzzy, like bad reception on a television. He sticks a finger in the water and shakes the liquid off when he pulls it out. Violet can see the freckles spattered on his cheeks and nose and she wants to reach up and touch them.

"Yeah, just thought I'd stop by and see what you were up to." He looks at her slyly. "Wanted to see if you wanted to join me."

"Join you?" She sits up and nods her head frantically. "Yes! Yes! What do I have to do?"

"Well, we have to play one of our games," he says slowly, that devilish grin appearing.

Violet lets out a choked sob. A game? They haven't played those in years and she's wanted to belong to him so bad!

He pulls a box cutter out of his trousers pocket, the sharp blade hard silver.

"Now hold out your arms, darling," he murmurs and she does that, wrists up.

He lets the blade cut deep in long tracks up and down her arms and the red spirals into the water.

"What now?" she asks as she lowers her limbs back into the water.

He's becoming clearer and clearer as the room becomes darker and darker.

"We wait, sweetheart. Because _you_ are _worth_ it." He flicks a bit of water in her direction playfully and she moans, smiling. "I love you, Violet."

"I love you, too, Syndr…"


End file.
